[ad_1]
On Sunday, July 28, the Venezuelan people voted to continue the Bolivarian Chavez Socialist Revolution under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
With 59% of the votes turned out, President Maduro was re-elected with 5,150,000 votes (51.2%), while opposition challenger Edmundo González received 4,445,978 votes (44.2%).
Official data shows that some 21,620,705 voters in the country and 228,000 voters abroad are entitled to vote at more than 15,000 polling stations from St. Lucia to Syria and Venezuelan embassies abroad.
Maduro, then vice president, was named successor to President Hugo Chavez before his death in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018 to serve a third consecutive term starting in 2024.
The highly symbolic election was held four days after the 241st anniversary of the birth of liberator Simón Bolívar on July 24, which also coincided with President Chavez’s 70th birthday.
The election ended two days ago in a largely peaceful process with large rallies held by both the ruling and opposition parties.
Voting opened at sunrise, and after a night of calm, President Maduro was one of the first to cast his ballot, promising that “Venezuela will wake up in peace on July 29…”
He said he was “not worried” about losing and suggested Venezuela had “entered another new era,” promising to “open a dialogue with all national political actors in society” following his party’s projected victory.
Venezuelans voted in peace on Sunday, with more than 800 international observers (including the Carter Center and the United Nations) observing the voting process and 1,300 international journalists covering the voting process.
The victory was another decisive defeat for the Western media, which had loudly predicted that Maduro would be defeated in the election by a divided opposition — “which could end Maduro’s authoritarian socialist rule,” as the Miami Herald put it.
But it turned out that the Venezuelan election not only overshadowed the Paris Olympics, which opened a few days earlier, but also repeated France’s recent experience – voters defied international media predictions of a far-right victory.
Likewise, it repeats the experience of Mexico, where voters overwhelmingly rejected misleading predictions that the new presidential candidate would lose.
Western media have been claiming that opposition candidates are leading in the polls – but have not provided specific figures.
The most blatant claim is that President Maduro “vowed to commit a massacre if his party lost” — something that was never said.
But despite this, Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela won yet another free and fair election — their 31st in 25 years and their 29th national electoral victory.
After declaring victory at midnight, President Maduro addressed his supporters and the nation from the balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, calling on the Venezuelan people to continue to unite behind him and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela to consolidate the results of their renewed electoral victory.
He promised that the new government would continue the economic and social reforms implemented since 2018, leading to the economic recovery that Venezuela has experienced over the past three years.
Thanks to a series of sweeping reforms over the past six years, consolidated in the last three (2021-2024), the country has overcome hundreds of politically driven external economic sanctions that have significantly reduced the country’s oil and gas revenues.
Following their victory, President Maduro and the United Socialist Party received congratulations from leaders around the world.
In the meantime, here are 20 facts and figures that help explain the Unified Socialist Party’s victory on July 28:
1. Venezuela’s national currency, the Bolivar, returns, and the US dollar exchange rate is the most stable in 13 years
2. Inflation in June 2024 was the lowest in 39 years at 1.0%, down from 96.7% in June 2018.
3. Venezuela has overcome hyperinflation by diversifying its national production and now has 1 million entrepreneurs and more than 60,000 new brands
4. Food sovereignty – 85% of food used to be imported, now 96% of food consumed is produced locally
5. Thanks to the economic recovery plan launched in August 2018, Venezuela’s economy has achieved 12 consecutive quarters of economic growth in the past three years.
6. 18 “growth engines” aimed at weaning the economy off energy exports and circumventing economic sanctions
7. Venezuela’s GDP growth in January-April 2024 was more than 7%, exceeding the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) expectations and suggesting a similar or better outlook for the end of the year
8. Tax revenues in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 105% compared to the first quarter of 2023, resulting in social production investment exceeding $3.5 billion in 2024
9. Venezuela received 1,097,595 international tourists between January and June 2024, a 202% increase from 363,249 in the first half of 2023. International tourist arrivals are expected to increase by 25% to 1,258,486 by the end of the year.
10. Areas that require special attention (both before and after the elections) include: oil, food and medicine, strengthening the national industrial platform and ensuring “full recovery of workers’ incomes”
11. Venezuela leads the region with 4.0% economic growth, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
12. Venezuela has 910 official election observers and 1,300 international journalists from more than 100 countries participating in the 2024 presidential election
13. The elections took place despite 936 unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) imposed by the United States, the European Union and other Western allies
14. Venezuela’s advanced electronic election process includes 16 certification audits – unmatched
15. The Unified Socialist Party has at least seven representatives in 270,000 streets, 47,000 communities and 15,700 polling stations across the country, and 800,000 elected spokespersons
16. 80% of PSUV election workers are women
17. 46,000 local councils across the country supply food through 49,000 community outlets
18. Before Chavez and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela came to power, 43% of Venezuelan voters were unable to vote because they lacked ID cards.
19. Nicolás Maduro, the presidential candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, received nominations from 13 political parties, while the opposition fielded nine splinter candidates;
20. The PSUV has won 28 of the 30 elections held in the past 25 years.
[ad_2]
Source link
